Beauty

Makeup Guide For The Over Fifties

Before we begin if you are familiar with my site you will know I am only just 20 years old, of course my skin is unlike a mature woman’s skin but, I do have some powerful knowledge that will hopefully give you some guide on where to go if you are stuck in a bit of a rut with your makeup.

I’m sorry mum if you are reading this, I don’t mean to use you as my prompt but, unfortunately you have to be. Over the past few years I have seen my mum struggle with makeup, where to apply it, what brands to buy and why something that works for her friends doesn’t work for her.

Since I can remember I have been watching my mum apply makeup for years and years and when I became older and began taking an interest in makeup I noticed little mistakes she would make. I then began to notice it on quite a few older women and it got me thinking…where is the makeup for the over fifties?

My mum is gorgeous, she has amazing skin and amazing eyes. Every night you can smell her as she wafts in to any room covered in all sorts of potions and lotions. But when she applies makeup I just know she can get a little lost, because there is no advice out there!

Out of respect ( and my life) I won’t say my mums age but, let’s just say she is a little over fifty. Meaning she does have a few wrinkles here and there. Who doesn’t?

I’m going to write this post based on my mums face and what would work for her. She would never let me post a picture of her but, as I said before she has lovely skin, a few wrinkles, bright blue eyes and short blonde hair.

Most over fifties skin is the same so I am going to write a few rules and tips below for you to follow.

Skincare

The first thing I am going to recommend is a good quality exfoliator and a good quality moisturizer. I am guessing a lot of you already use a good moisturizer but, do you exfoliate?

A lot of women in their fifties suffer from dry skin which makes foundation work at its best. All you need to do is invest in an exfoliator. And every night or every other night exfoliate your skin and then apply your moisturizer.

It will make a huge difference to your skin and you should notice it when applying foundation too.

Below is my favorite exfoliator that I found. I know it is a typically ‘teenage’ brand but, it is oil free which is great for skin and it keeps skin looking fresh, clear and clean.

Foundation

The next thing is foundation. This can sometimes be the hardest thing for mature skin as most companies focus around oily skin or foundation to prevent wrinkles.

Foundation Types To Avoid

First of all the foundation that ‘prevents wrinkles’ or ‘disguises wrinkles’ doesn’t. Perhaps if you’re 30 and just beginning to see signs of ageing it will possibly work for them but at 50 an anti-ageing foundation doesn’t really do much. I would call it a ‘heavy duty’ foundation, something we want to try and AVOID.

If you do have deep set wrinkles, especially around your eyes you don’t want to apply heavy foundation for it sinks in to wrinkles, hence making them appear deeper.

Aside from heavy duty foundations, I would always recommend avoiding powders. I feel like the ‘powder industry’ is targeting the over fifties but, trust me it doesn’t work for that skin type.

Powder foundations look un-natural and once again they can settle in to deep set wrinkles making them look deeper than they actually are.

Don’t Avoid

Tinted moisturizers. Tinted moisturizers are fantastic for older skin as they work as a moisturizer whilst giving you some color. They aren’t a very high coverage but, they are natural and the product won’t ‘sink’ in to your skin like a powder or a high coverage foundation would.

Tinted sunscreen is also a brilliant idea as not only do you protect your face but you give your face some color at the same time.

If it is coverage you’re after go for something like a mousse or a light coverage foundation. A great one to use would be the wake me up foundation by rimmel as it’s a medium to high coverage and won’t sink in to fine lines.

Eyeliner

I feel bad sitting here telling you what to put on your face and what will look good as most of you probably have more knowledge about makeup than me and all of the beauty industry put together! I am just trying to steer you in a better direction so you don’t go wrong!

Eyeliner is amazing as it can make your eyes really pop. I would recommend a black or brown eyeliner to line your lower lash line with for a more ‘made up’ look.

Brown eyeliner is a lot less harsh than black and if you do have blue eyes it really compliments them.

If you want a more natural look take a black gel eyeliner and line it across the top of your eyelid, as close as you can get to lash line. Try not to flick it out for miles, but subtly end the line with an upwards, small flick. This will really make your eyes look bigger and make them pop.

Don’ts

If you can try to avoid blue, purple, pink, white eyeliners as they don’t compliment your eyes that well. A subtle blue line across the lid of your eye is lovely but, try to avoid it along your lower lash line as it just doesn’t do you any favors (sorry!).

Mascara

You can’t really go wrong with mascara. Something black or brown is perfect and a brush that’s not quite so ‘bushy’ is great.

Another tip would be to go for waterproof eyeliner. Especially if you’re prone to crying or just rubbing your eyes a lot! Even if you’re not it will keep your mascara on all day.

Concealer

Concealer is still a trial and error for a lot of women (including me!) if it’s applied wrong you can look so strange but, if applied right it can do so much to your face.

If you didn’t want to use any kind of foundation you could use a simple concealer and below I will show you how.

Concealer, aside from covering up blemishes, can cover up dark circles, it can highlight your brows and be used as a make shift contour on more mature skin which I will explain further on in this post!

Use your concealer to cover blemishes on your skin. I am using this concealer but I would not recommend it on more mature skin as it will sit and sink itself in to fine lines, you will need something more ‘liquidy’ such as this one. You just dab the concealer on to the blemish and dab around the area, blending it in with your skin.

This photo is me blending in my concealer to cover under eye circles and making my eyes pop more. Try to avoid placing the concealer directly under your eye as it does sit there, so if you do have bags or wrinkles, it will sink in. Try and place it directly where I have and then blend (just use your fingers, you have more control and I have never used a concealer brush in my life for this kind of look!).

Blend and make your way under your eye delicately without tugging at the skin as it is a really sensitive area.

Concealer can also be used as a brow highlight if placed directly beneath the arch of your brows. Apply it after you have finished your eye makeup and make sure to blend it with the rest of your eye. If applied correctly it will give your brows an automatic ‘lift’.

Eyebrows

A lot of mature women do have quite thin eyebrows. Right now the fashion is to have big eyebrows so who knows what will happen in the next 30 years!

Anyway, eyebrows as we all know can either make or break a makeup look. So for the more mature eyebrow all we want to do is take an eyebrow palette rather than a pencil as it is more natural. If you do have a pencil don’t worry as the result will be the same just a little more defined! All you need to do is not apply as much pressure to the brow with the pencil.

All we want to do is take our pencil or eyebrow brush and follow the line beneath our brow, reaching upwards where our brows naturally curve. Try not to keep the line going right until the end as it does look unnatural.

As you can see I didn’t fill in my brows and I made the brow line darker so you could see where we want the line to go. To finish the brow lightly brush the end of the brow with your brush or pencil, giving it some color but not completely defining it.

Eye shadow

As you may or may not have noticed a lot of more mature women are taking to the blue eye shadow. If you do feel great wearing it, wear it. I am nobody to tell you what you can’t wear but, I will say it doesn’t really suit anyone.

If you took Kate Moss or Angelina Jolie a bright blue eye shadow wouldn’t suit them either.

I would recommend using subtle pinks or nude browns to make your eyes pop and give them a little ‘oomph’. You don’t need any fancy makeup tools, all you need is your finger to blend the color on your eyes. If you aren’t comfortable with your finger you can just buy a cheap eyeshadow brush to apply your eyeshadow with.

Just try and avoid really dark colors or really bright colors, meet somewhere in the middle and you will be fine!

Contour

As you may have seen around A LOT at the minute ‘contouring’ is now a thing. If you don’t know what is it, it’s the art of taking two different kinds of contour colors and applying them in to places on your face to emphasize the features on your face and to make your face appear slimmer and giving it a small lift.

People from every age group are struggling with contouring and if it’s done wrong it looks disastrous. Below however I am going to show you a quick way to contour using a bronzer and your concealer. If you do have contour sticks and don’t know how to use them don’t worry I’ll explain that below too!

How to makeshift contour with bronzer and your concealer

Following the steps above from the concealer part of the post, conceal your eye area with your concealer as we did above. Aside from that take your concealer once again and run a small line down your nose and make an upside down triangle on your chin.

Don’t worry i’m not trying to make you look bad on purpose! Once that is done taking your finger or your concealer brush, blend it in to your skin, making sure there are not strange lines.

Then taking your bronzer and your bronzing brush line down the sides of your cheekbones, take the bronzer down the sides of your nose and then of course around your chin.

It will instantly lift your face. Just make sure to blend, that’s the key in all of this!

This is how it should look whilst applying, before blending. (Trust me it has a slimming effect it’s worth it!)

I won’t show you an after picture once I had blended because everybody is different especially more mature skin. I just wanted to show you where should be applying your product to create a lifting effect.

How to contour with a contour stick and a highlighter

If you did go and buy a contour stick and a highlighter or just a contour stick have no fear. The steps are exactly the same except all you need to do differently is blend a lot better as contour sticks are creamy. I would recommend using a stippling or a blending brush as we really need to disperse the product properly.

Always remember to really push the product in to your skin so there are no strange brown lines making their way around your face.

Your highlighter is to be placed wherever light falls naturally on your face after you have blended in your contour. So along the end of your nose, on your chin and at the tip of your cheekbones, it is not to be used the same as a concealer.